Cancel that miracle!

Well, I guess a few days of rest and Stampede DID make for an improved run last week, but I should have known it wouldn't last. Another week goes by complete with a zillion beers, more mac and cheese pizza (carbolicious!!!) and more cowboys than you can shake a stick at.  I didn't run once (chasing the bus doesn't count) and as far as nutrition went, only deep fried things fueled me and only beer hydrated me.

These were full length jeans a week ago??

So, it should come as no surprise that I've gained a few pounds and gotten a little slower.

Nonetheless, I LOVE Stampede, and while my body could sure use the break, I'm going to miss it. But back to training! It was warm this morning (already nearly 20C at 6am) when I headed out for a 5K. My only goal this morning was to run the whole 5K without walking. I had put some new music on my ipod and was ready to go!  Sure enough, I felt great. The sun rose as I ran out on the usual airport path, and there were no bugs. AND sure enough, I was able to run the whole 5K without much trouble. In fact, I felt pretty good and darn fast, in spite of the bowl of jelly I seemed to be carrying around my midriff.  As the ipod announced I was done, I eagerly grabbed it, sure I had broken records or at least come close.

The ipod said it had taken me just over 34 minutes. I checked again...surely that couldn't be right??? I had been awesome! I felt good, my music was awesome and I thought I had really booted it the last half km, surely today was the day I had finally broken the 30 minute mark I've been striving for. But no, I guess when I run alone I'm lazy as can be and will be as slow as a turtle!

Nonetheless, I did what I had set out to do by running the whole thing with no breaks, so whatever, I'm back on track with a mere 40-something days left.

Oh, and yesterday I started the Insanity regime, diet and all. So, I dryheaved through the Fit Test yesterday and did the first workout today...I bet my body is totally confused by all the lean protein and vegetables I've eaten and I'm pretty sure there's no more beer or fried food residue in me anymore based on the amount of sweat I lost in the past 24 hours.

Stampede Miracle!

I spent Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth which was awesome. Not only did I get my rodeo and beloved chuckwagons in, but I was able to be Second Greatest Show on Earth...me pigging out on the midway for 3 days. Here's but a mere  sampling of what I enjoyed on the weekend...

Maple Bacon Ice Cream = Delicious? Who knew???
The good people at McKays, that's who!

Donut burger....MAPLE GLAZED donut burger..mmmm

Deep fried poptart goodness=breakfast of champions

Mac and Cheese Pizza---Carbo-licious!!!

Ummm...there may have also been corndogs, mini donuts, poutine, deep fried cheese, sausage rolls, smokies, deep fried mac and cheese and a few beers thrown in for good measure, but a girl can only document so much shame.  So, YES, on Monday I felt like a giant bag of horse manure.  And barely managed 30 minutes on the elliptical at the gym, a run was out of the question.  I ate nothing but vegetables and grilled meats and drank endless cups of green tea in hopes of soothing achy liver.

Tuesday rolls around and Princess Crys and I head out for a morning 5K, both dreading what is sure to be a slow and painful run. In the rain.

It is our fastest run since March.

It felt OK. Actually, a bit better than OK. I felt good and like I could have run more. More like I used to feel in the winter when our training was umm...a bit more structured.

In short, now I'm somewhat convinced my all-deepfried weekend only enhanced my running performance!   I celebrated today's findings with not one, but TWO pancake breakfasts. YAHOO!!! 

Two very different 18Ks...

Part 1: 18 kilometer run



Sunday I woke up feeling lousy. My stomach hurt and I was kind of stuffed up. And really tired, in spite of a solid 10 hours of sleep. I didn't want to run 18K, I wanted to go back to sleep and then eat chicken noodle soup (laced with, um, Imodium). The great (and terrible) thing about training as a trio meant I couldn't do that, I had to get up and go. Still feeling lousy, I drove over to the Running Room to join the group and we set out on what I grudgingly acknowledge was a lovely sunny and warm (for January) morning run. We started out running towards the mountains, which was straight into a brisk Chinook wind, which means I was in trouble immediately. I find running INTO the wind means it sucks the air right out of me so the first 2K which are usually a treat before I get all tired were tough as I wheezed my way West. We wound our way into some pretty posh neighbourhoods and I eyed their 4 car garages nervously, daydreaming of what would happen if I knocked on their door and asked to use their servants bathroom should it be required. Running was NOT improving my tummy, but we kept on trucking. Crystal had brought her awesome marathoner buddy for the run and was wearing one headphone, so she stayed slightly ahead with the lead runners and entertained us with her random karaoke (run-eoke?) Christi was foolish enough to lag behind and both keep me company and force me to keep up with the group so I wouldn't get lost. This meant she had 123 minutes of me whining to look forward to!

Like the Evil Witch, this only looks good on the outside

 After a few KILLER hills, I was actually whimpering out loud. I didn't sign up for this!---wait, yes I did. After running up a dirt road hill, we reached what I can only assume was City limits, so we mercifully paused for a photo op. I made the mistake at this point of checking our distance, and was crushed to see we weren't even half way. We still had a few kms before we were even halfway. At that point, if a taxi had pulled up, I would have quit and gone home. I was tired, I wasn't feeling good, and at no point so far had I hit a running groove: basically every minute was feeling like torture and I was not having fun. But, no taxi (or bus, or rickshaw or donkey) came to save me, so on we went.

I'd like to say things got better at the halfway point, but they didn't. I whined for the next hour or so as we worked our way around Signal Hill and Richmond. Sorry Christi, and thanks for putting up with me! At one point, I got a stabby pain in my foot so sudden and severe I shrieked and dead stopped. I limped along for a few minutes until the pain subsided, and it hasn't come back since. We finally made it back to the Running Room only to realize we were still a quarter of a km off the finish, so we had to run over to the Best Buy and back, twice passing the others doing their cool downs. I was so relieved we were done, I wanted to lie face down on the icy pavement for the rest of the day. But then I would have missed what happened next...

Part 2: 18k....that's 18000 calories consumed, people

Now, the only reason I pushed through the run was under the promise of Pannenkoeks. We peeled over to the restaurant to get on the waiting list, stopping only to grab a jug of chocolate milk to fight off the post-run DTs. Noticing the "No Outside Food or Drink" sign on the door but not wanting to wait in the cold, we huddled around the curio cabinet, surreptitiously swigging and passing the jug around like bad high school kids at the mall with a mickey swiped from their parent's stash. When we were sat, we apologized to our server about the milk (we're not bad kids, we totally felt guilty!) and instead of being mad, she brought us sample sizes of their own chocolate milk which she claimed was the best in the city. After trying it, we couldn't argue. She also brought us extra cookies with our tea because "we looked like we needed them". HOOORAY!

Things only got better from there. We decided since 18k was so much more than 16k, we needed to split 4 between the 3 of us---2 savory and 2 sweet. We opted for their feature: grilled chicken, Anjou pear, maple glazed pecans and Gruyere, along with a repeat of the awesome one from last week: potato, bacon and cheese. Then we sat there unable to concentrate on a subject for more than 10 seconds until the sweet, sweet nosh arrived on our table. After some hasty pannenkoek math, we dived in to what can only be described as heaven on a plate. Not only was it excellent, but we were seriously tapping into empty carb tanks at that point. I could almost feel life and happiness flowing back into me as I alternated bites of each, pausing only to slather the potato one in sour cream.

No, I can't believe Crystal left a cookie either!

Before we knew it, we were staring at empty plates...but not for long. Moments later, our dessert pannenkoeks arrived. One was banana Nutella with ice cream AND whipped cream, the other was the cinnamon bun one (sugar and cream cheese frosting) with added baked apples and maple pecans. At this point, I was so excited, I had to put my head in my lap to avoid passing out, so Crystal and Christi divvied up the goods. Again, sweet sugary joy coursed through ourveins as we mainlined our dessert.

That's what I call a money shot!

Eventually we flatlined, so full we actually left traces of Nutella on the table. All we could do at that point was rush home for showers and serious couch time, both of which were well earned.

 

This folks, is what running is all about...through perseverance comes great rewards!

Note the crazy looks in our eyes...

Yeah, I'm treating it like a temple all right!

Since we have yet to have a nutrition talk at our running clinic, I think I can feign ignorance here...on Sunday we ran our 9K, which at the end we discovered was almost 11K...10.8K including our cooldown. No wonder I felt so tired and sore, I'd done almost 2 extra "fun" kilometers and it wasn't even 10am on a Sunday! Before I left, I ate half a whole wheat bagel and some spoons of yogurt. I think I've decided bagels are pretty much the best running food ever, so that was great, but I ended up regretting the yogurt. Although delicious vanilla sweetened with honey, it kept ummm....repeating on me the second half of the run. No pre-run dairy? Lesson learned, belly!

Anyways, after I got home and had the world's greatest shower (not much feels better after an hour of running in zero C than a shower so hot it melts your skin right off and the steam burns your lungs) I headed out with my fella to our local pub for their $3.99 breakfast.  I was so hungry by the time it arrived, I kept burning my mouth on the molten hash browns while I frantically slathered peanut butter and jam on the toast, then ate it like a gull (right down the hatch, no time to chew!) The bacon and eggs suffered a similar fate of barely grazing my taste buds on their way down.  Three cups of coffee later, we headed out for some Sunday shopping!

Next stop: Fabricland to see if they carry "activewear" fabric if I was going to give making a Disney Princess dress a go instead of buying it.  Advantages: would be wicking fabric, custom and awesome and fit an adult instead of trying to cram into a child's costume.  Disadvantages: fabric was ludicrously priced at $30 a meter and oh, yeah, I don't know how to sew or have a sewing machine. I felt like a failure as a woman wandering the aisles as the other women expertly talked about darts and basting and serging.  So, off for a bit more (less depressing) shopping.  At Toys R Us, I stock up on Christmas presents for munchkins, and a bunch of awesome candy for myself to eat in the car.

We're happy in your belly, Princess Fliss!

After a few more shops (and a few more dollars spent) I was starving again.  I guess running 11K after a week of sleeping off a fever on the couch really works up the 'ol appetite! Off to the very conveniently priced Ikea for hotdogs!  We order 2 hotdogs each, pop, chips and cinnamon buns (that the lady warned me to be careful on as they were freshly iced and hot out of the oven...mmmmm.....) for an early dinner (it was 330) and again, devour like a gull.

At 530pm, was starving again. Time to make more nutritionally sound decisions!  Remembering there were chicken potstickers in the freezer, I fry up a batch and according to the label on the back, eat 3 servings.  Who are these servings actually supposed to satisfy? Not the giant North American who ran 11k this morning, I told myself as I surreptitiously licked the last bits of greasy goodness off my fingers and drank the rest of the dipping sauce.

Without divulging my calorific intake for the day (even attempting the math fills me with remorse), I can say I probably had a weeks worth of sodium in 7 hours. And not a single vegetable.  And ALL the protein and  carbs were either deep fried or covered in icing. It doesn't take an expert to see that I probably didn't refuel properly today, and my diet probably contributed to the increasing pain I'm feeling in the back of my legs.  At least I drank a few gallons of water, even if it was mostly to wash down the Advil.

Do You Know the Way to San Jose...I mean Chachis?

So the very first post on our blog was July 29, 2010. It’s now 33 days later and quite a few degrees colder outside and we have finally today began to follow our training schedule for the pre-marathon 10k race in Phoenix. And what better way to begin training than to decide to run to the airport and reward ourselves with Chachi’s sandwiches, chilled dill pickles and cheesy, gooey mac & cheese?!! Bizarre idea you say? No way! It was fabulous and well worth the 2.72kms to the airport, Christi keeping a close watch on the killer hawk that now gives her daymares at work and Felicity and I trying to be brave and show no fear to this bird with the 9ft wing span! Well, that’s at least how big it looks in the shadow circling our heads.

We mapped it as 2 separate runs because we stopped in the middle. Also, because we can do basic math!

Never the less, we arrived safely at the airport and Christi and I built perfect sandwiches (Fliss was eager to get back to her amazing Sunterra lasagna) and we were on our way again. Now you would assume we brought a bag or small backpack to put said sandwiches, pickles and Mac & Cheese in, but no, we football carried the subs in one hand and held the Mac & Cheese and Dill Pickles in the other. I’d be lying if I said it made the run easier. It really messed up our stride! And to make matters worse, pickle juice was running all down my arm and then the Hawk was back again, hovering, just waiting to grab one of us by the ponytail and fly off into oblivion with us and our tasty lunches!!

Running for our lives! I mean lunches!

Clearly since I am writing this, we did make it back the remaining 2.31kms unscathed and Chachi’s sandwiches never tasted so good! All finished off with 100 calorie oreo cookie ice cream treats and I would call this first day of actually training a success! Princesses 1 : Hawk 0!

I’m starting to notice a pattern here in these blogs; less about running, and more about food!! Nom, Nom, Nom!!

PS...Fliss here...if Crystal's shorts look familiar, it's because they're Christi's! Hahaha!

The fallacy of carbo-loading

Yeah, this IS a real video game!

Last night for dinner, I had a lovely (portion controlled) piece of fresh vegetarian lasagna (thank you Sunterra!) and HALF A LOAF OF BREAD. And not some mamby-pamby wonderbread, no, it was half of one of those giant fresh baked Tuscan loaves you find at your local bakery or independent grocer. I couldn't stop myself.  Not only was I clever enough to put out softened butter to go with it, but also a plate of olive and walnut oil infused with toasted pumpkin seeds and fresh sage (no, I didn't make that either. I'm not gourmet, I just masquerade as one in real life) and I kept slicing and dipping, slicing and dipping until before I knew it, the whole loaf had vanished, leaving only a thick dusting of crumbs all over my patio table.  After a 17 minute nap (yeah, 17 minutes I said, and it was awesome! I rule the mininap!) , I headed out to soccer practice for 90 minutes of waddling around, clutching my bread belly like it was an overstuffed money belt around my midriff and gasping like a fish out of water.  I do NOT recommend consuming roughly 800 calories in entirely bread before a medium to high intensity workout.  Like, this bread was bigger than most cats.

Instead of feeling all fueled up and glycemic-ready, I actually felt like bread was leaking into my lungs and trying to kill me.  Lesson learned, I guess. Even now, the next day, my belly looks like one of those fetish websites. Maybe I can try to make a few bucks on the side while I "train"?

RE: Salad Schmalad

I think this picture says it all and I never need to go on a rant about hating salad ever again.

But what do Scissors and Paper eat?

What's awesome is that I see this sign ever single morning when I drive to work. Well, every single morning since Christi told me to look for it! It's oddly on the opposite side of the road for a bill board. I had to pull a highly risky, covert move to snap this picture, but the near death experience was well worth it!! And I know this is a running blog, yet all I do is write about food, so I'll tell you about my training and the ever persistant muscle spasm I have another time. Right now, I'm going to make some bacon!

Miracle Day = Miracle Food!

This morning I ran 5K on the treadmill on the speed interval setting.  I toggled between 8.5KPH and 11.5KPH and finished in 32.18.  Not my fastest 5K EVER, but it was still up there and I felt pretty good at the end!  I ran my first half marathon last year but didn't keep up the training as well as I'd like to, so these are harder than they used to be. Now, remember my last post with the brief nutritional tutorial for runners?  Well, yesterday was Miracle Day at Dairy Queen which means when you buy a Blizzard, you're not snarfing a tasty frozen treat, you're helping sick children! 

We went over and tried out the new mini Blizzards, which are a PERFECT 6oz serving, you know, to help out the kids.  I had checked nutritional info online before we went and chose the Peanut Butter Cup Blizzard (which I didn't know existed, I thought they used Reeses Pieces, which are delicious on their own but all waxy when added to ice cream and therefore not my favorite). The mini clocked in at a half decent 275 calories.  I did a breakdown of these calories and they are as follows:

38g carbs
11g fat
6g protein

In other words, the breakdown was 69-20-11.  An optimum runners diet should be roughly 60-20-20, so a Blizzard does go a bit over on carbs and under on protein, but is otherwise basically the perfect runners fuel.  No wonder my run this morning was so decent! I was being fueled by a Dairy Queen Powerhouse!

You can't argue with science, folks. I'm adding a Blizzard mini into my diet at least twice a week until they take them away.

PS....Speaking of Blizzards I went to Cambodia last year and had a Large Blizzard, which was only slightly bigger that the North American Mini version.  I think that nicely demonstrates why we're the most obese continent on the planet!  Go Team!

But enough about my training: What do I get to eat?

To sum up, I feel like this:

So, I thought I would briefly talk basic nutrition for the distance runner instead of how I feel like I went head to head with a truck and lost.  Here goes:

First, forget everything Dr Atkins ever told you...you need lots and lots of carbs to fuel a run.

Carbs: 60% of daily intake, from pasta, rice, bread, fruit and starchy veggies
Protein: 15-20% of daily intake, from lean meats, low cal dairy and beans
Fats: 20-25% of daily intake, but the "good" kind from oils, nuts and fishes, not my favorite kind of fat.

This guide is good because carbs are my favorite. If I had my way, every day would be potato and spaghetti sandwich day. 

You also want to ensure you get plenty of calcium and iron to ensure you can perform at your best (that's what she said) and drink lots of water to stay hydrated. Which means liver milkshakes are the perfect mineral supplement.  But I'm going to stick with capsules until this shows up as Dairy Queen's featured flavor.

I did some research yesterday when I was hungry, and there's a California Pizza Kitchen near Disneyworld, so I think we'll be just fine for our pre-race dinner...HURRAY!